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After
President Barack Obama signed the bill reopening the federal
government and raising the debt limit, the IRS posted a notice on its website Thursday morning
notifying workers to report to work no later than four hours
after “the start of their tour of duty that begins at 6 a.m.
or later local time on Oct. 17.” Employees with approved
telecommuting schedules can work at home; all others must take
leave if they cannot return to work.

The IRS also announced on Thursday that 2014 renewals
of preparer tax identification numbers (PTINs) are being
delayed because of the government shutdown. The IRS will
notify current PTIN holders when the renewal season will
start.

Approximately 90% of IRS employees were furloughed
during the 16-day government shutdown. As a result, many IRS
functions were not operating, including the issuing of refunds
and liens and levies. All taxpayer services, including
telephone assistance and local IRS offices, were closed, and
the Taxpayer Advocate Service shut down. Also, no IRS guidance
was issued during the shutdown.

The Tax Court, which
was the only federal court that closed during the government
shutdown, reopened for business on Thursday for
its regular business hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Unlike the
IRS, the court did not give its employees a four-hour
reprieve. The court began accepting hand and electronically
filed documents again on Thursday and began sending out
documents itself.

Cases that had been scheduled to be
heard during the shutdown will be rescheduled. The court will
notify the parties of the new dates and times. For cases that
were scheduled to begin Oct. 21 or later, the schedules are
unchanged unless the parties are notified otherwise. For other
court-scheduled due dates, the court will publish a follow-up
notice describing grace periods for filings that have been
affected by the shutdown.

The court reiterated its
inability to defer filing deadlines that are set by statute,
such as the Sec. 6213(a) deadline to file a tax court petition
to redetermine a deficiency within 90 days of receiving the
deficiency notice and the 30-day deadline for filing a
petition challenging a lien or levy under Sec. 6330(d)(1).
During the shutdown, petitions and other documents could be
filed only via U.S. mail or private delivery services.
Taxpayers could rely on the Sec. 7502(a) rule that a timely
mailed petition is treated as timely filed, as of the date of
the U.S. postal service postmark on the envelope in which the
petition was mailed. Under Sec. 7502(f), petitions sent using
designated private delivery services get the benefit of this
rule. Now that the Tax Court has reopened, taxpayers whose
filing deadlines fall on Oct. 17 or later may resume
electronic filing or hand-delivery, as well as continue to
mail the petitions.

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